Ham the astrochimp: hero or victim? | Science | The Guardian Ham the astrochimp: hero or victim? Spare a thought for Ham the Chimp, an object and victim in the human race for space. A terrified Ham reaches out for an apple after his space flight in 1961. Photograph: National Archives Monday 16 December 2013 07.28 EST Last modified on Friday 16 October 2015 10.08 EDT Go visit: National Museum of Health and Medicine , Washington D.C. Last week, I had the great privilege of meeting primatologist Dr Jane Goodall . (I am writing a profile of her for the Wellcome Trust ’s exciting new online life science magazine Mosaic , due to launch in the new year). In our conversation we briefly touched on the life of Ham, a chimpanzee who has interested me for several years. Goodall’s dismay at Ham’s treatment has caused me to reconsider how his story should be told. If you’ve never heard of Ham, he was one of hundreds of experimental animals unwittingly enrolled into NASA’s Project Mercury , a programme that sought to put a (hu)man into space.

Shortly after he was born in 1957, in what was then French Cameroons , the US Air Force engaged collectors to source some chimps from the native forest. Three years later, more than a dozen animals flew from Africa to the US, entering into what was referred to as the “School for Space Chimps” at the Holloman Air Force Base in Alamagordo, New Mexico. One of them – subject 65, aka Ham (Holloman Aerospace Medical Center) –was head of the class. He was fit, was comfortable being strapped into his “couch” and quickly learned the lever-pushing tasks required of him. “He was wonderful,” recalled his handler Edward Dittmer for a book entitled Animals in Space . “He performed so well and was a remarkably easy chimp to handle. I’d hold him and he was just like a little kid.” Pinterest Ham in his capsule, with his handler Edward Dittmer (left). Photograph: NASA In early 1961, Ham and the next five most promising primates were flown to Cape Canaveral in Florida to prepare for an experimental flight.

The purpose of this mission, according to a NASA press release issued on 28 January 1961, was to provide “a check of the craft’s environmental control and recovery systems” and “a first test of the functioning of the life support system during an appreciable period – nearly five minutes – of zero gravity.” With just days to go, Ham got the nod. Dressed in a nappy, waterproof pants and spacesuit, fitted with sensors to monitor his heart rate, breathing and body temperature during flight, his handlers strapped him into a capsule that would sit inside the nosecone of the Mercury-Redstone 2 rocket. When MR-2 took off on 31 January 1961, Goodall was in Africa, where she had recently started her research project on chimpanzees in what was to become Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania. When, later on, she saw the footage of Ham recorded during his sixteen-minute ordeal and photographs taken upon recovering his capsule, she was horrified. “I have never seen such terror on a chimp's face,” she told me. When I first met Ham in 2007, he’d been dead for a quarter of a century.

After his space flight, he spent almost 20 years alone at the National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C. before being moved to North Carolina Zoo where there was a small colony of captive chimps. When he died in 1983 at the relatively young chimp age of 25, there was disquiet at the idea that his skin might be stuffed and put on display at the Air and Space Museum . “Talk about death without dignity,” ran a leader in the Washington Post. “Talk about dreadful precedents – it should be enough to make any space veteran more than a little nervous about how he is going to be treated in the posthumous by and by.” A letter filed away in the Smithsonian Archives (in a folder of Ham-based correspondence), summed up the public mood: “By treating his body like that of a stupid beast, people will continue thinking of apes as stupid beasts, and not the intelligent, almost human animals they really are,” wrote a sophomore at West High School in Painted Post, New York.

As a result of this kind of outcry, the US Air Force (to which Ham still belonged) agreed to bury him at the International Space Hall of Fame at the Museum of Space History in Alamogordo, New Mexico. But they kept his skeleton for its “scientific value”. This is all that remains of him, a disarticulated set of bones carefully laid out in a drawer behind the scenes at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in a northern suburb of Washington D.C. Pinterest Drawer containing specimen 1871496 (aka Ham the Chimp) at the US National Museum of Health and Medicine. Photograph: Henry Nicholls Ham was the first primate in space, exiting earth’s atmosphere some ten weeks ahead of Soviet pioneer Yuri Gagarin and over three months before Alan Shepard . When I have written about Ham in the past , I have tended to portray him in this way, as the subject and hero of the story, an animal whose journey I have used to capture the excitement of the human race for space. He does this well.

But having spoken to Goodall, I realise it is more appropriate to render Ham differently, not as subject and hero but as object and victim, his life and afterlife a reminder of the ways in which humans are prepared to exploit those around us in pursuit of our own ambitions. Tale ends NASA’s portrayal of Ham tends towards the heroic. Footage taken within the capsule during flight is usually edited, showing a relaxed and apparently happy Ham. You can see the unedited film here (in which he is clearly extremely distressed at around 2:12), but I cannot find this on NASA’s website. It should be there right? Am I missing something? If there is a zoological specimen with a great story that you would like to see profiled, please contact Henry Nicholls @WayOfThePanda . The First American In Space Was A Captured Chimp The First American In Space Was A Captured Chimp This post was created by a member of the Dodo Community. The first Earthling in space was not a human. Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first human sent into orbit.

He was launched on April 12, 1961 onboard the Vostok 1 and spent one hour and 48 minutes in space. However the distinction of being the first Earthling in space goes to Laika (Лайка, "Barker"). She was launched on Sputnik 2 on November 3, 1957. Unlike Gagarin, Laika was sent on a suicide mission. She died during the flight from stress and overheating. At a media conference in Moscow in 1998, Soviet scientist Oleg Gazenko who worked on the project said, "The more time passes, the more I'm sorry about it. We did not learn enough from the mission to justify the death of the dog." On July 2, 1959, a dog named Otvazhnaya (Brave One) was sent into space with her fellow passengers, another dog named Snezhinka (Snowflake) and a rabbit named Marfusha (Little Martha). So by the time the first American, Alan Shepard, flew into space, he had already been preceded by quite a few dogs, some mice and a rabbit.

But he also was not the first Earthling sent into space by NASA. That distinction goes to Ham, and Ham was an African-born slave, captured in Cameroon in 1956. Ham the Astro-Chimp was captured as a baby by animal trappers who had killed his parents. He was then sold to a facility in Florida, where he was purchased by the United States Air Force in 1959. He was one of 40 chimpanzees purchased for space experimentation. He was not given his name, "Ham," until after his flight because the Air Force was worried that there would be adverse publicity should a chimp with a name die during the flight. He was referred to simply as "No. 65," although for some strange reason, his handers called him "Chop Chop Chang." Ham entered space 54 years ago this month on January 31, 1961, in a Project Mercury mission, labeled MR-2, that was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Ham had his vital signs and tasks monitored using computers on Earth. Ham's lever-pushing performance in space demonstrated that tasks could be performed in space.

Ham's capsule splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean and was recovered by a rescue ship. He only suffered a bruised nose. His flight was 16 minutes and 39 seconds long. After the flight Ham was sent to the National Zoo in Washington, DC, where he lived for 17 years. He died in 1983 and the plan was to stuff his body for the Smithsonian. That plan was abandoned because of a negative public reaction. Instead, he was buried at the International Space Hall of Fame in New Mexico. On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American human to enter space. His flight lasted 15 minutes, and thus, did not surpass the record set by Ham. I remember seeing the picture of Ham on the front page of the newspapers in 1960. I was nine years old. I think my first reaction was that I wanted to become an astronaut. I certainly was not aware nor did it occur to me at the time just how tragic Ham's life had been. But what struck me about the picture was the look of triumph on his face. I think he sensed what he had done. The first hominid to enter space.

The first ape from the planet to leave the planet dominated by the cruel humans who had slaughtered his family and enslaved him. For 15 glorious minutes he was free of both the gravitational pull of the planet and his human slave masters. I can't help but wonder now just what he thought when he looked down upon something that only Yuri Gagarin, a few dogs, some mice and a rabbit had previously seen, if they had seen anything at all. I like to think that Ham knew what he was seeing, and that was the same thing that all his fellow astronauts saw after him — that there is but one planet for us all, and upon it, we are all interdependent upon each other. Animals in Space A Brief History of Animals in Space Before humans actually went into space, one of the prevailing theories of the perils of space flight was that humans might not be able to survive long periods of weightlessness. For several years, there had been a serious debate among scientists about the effects of prolonged weightlessness. American and Russian scientists utilized animals - mainly monkeys, chimps and dogs - in order to test each country's ability to launch a living organism into space and bring it back alive and unharmed.

On June 11, 1948, a V-2 Blossom launched into space from White Sands, New Mexico carrying Albert I, a rhesus monkey. Lack of fanfare and documentation made Albert an unsung hero of animal astronauts. On June 14, 1949, a second V-2 flight carrying a live Air Force Aeromedical Laboratory monkey, Albert II, attained an altitude of 83 miles. The monkey died on impact. On August 31, 1950, another V-2 was launched and carried an unanaesthetized mouse that was photographed in flight and did not survive impact. On December 12, 1949, the last V-2 monkey flight was launched at White Sands. Albert IV, a rhesus monkey attached to monitoring instruments, was the payload. It was a successful flight, with no ill effects on the monkey until impact, when it died. On September 20, 1951, a monkey named Yorick and 11 mice were recovered after an Aerobee missile flight of 236,000 feet at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico.

Yorick got a fair amount of press as the first monkey to live through a space flight. On May 22, 1952, two Philippine monkeys, Patricia and Mike, were enclosed in an Aerobee nose section at Holloman Air Force Base. Patricia was placed in a seated position and Mike in a prone position to determine differences in the effects of rapid acceleration. Fired 36 miles up at a speed of 2000 mph, these two monkeys were the first primates to reach such a high altitude. Also on this flight were two white mice, Mildred and Albert. They were inside a slowly rotating drum where they could "float" during the period of weightlessness. The section containing the animals was recovered safely from the upper atmosphere by parachute. Patricia died of natural causes about two years later and Mike died in 1967, both at the National Zoological Park in Washington, DC. The Soviets kept close tabs on what the U.S. was doing with their V-2 and Aerobee missile projects during the early 1950's.

Basing their experiments on American biomedical research, Soviet rocket pioneer Sergei Korolev, his biomedical expert Vladimir Yazdovsky, and a small team used mice, rats and rabbits as one-way passengers for their initial tests. They needed to gather data to design a cabin to carry a human being into space. Eventually they chose small dogs for this phase of testing. Dogs were chosen over monkeys because it was felt that they would be less fidgety in flight. A test with two dogs would allow for more accurate results. They chose females because of the relative ease of controlling waste. Between 1951 and 1952, the Soviet R-1 series rockets carried nine dogs altogether, with three dogs flying twice. Each flight carried a pair of dogs in hermetically sealed containers that were recovered by parachute. Of these early space-bound hounds, a few have been remembered by name. On August 15, 1951, Dezik and Tsygan ("Gypsy") were launched. These two were the first canine suborbital astronauts. They were successfully retrieved. In early September 1951, Dezik and Lisa were launched. This second early Russian dog flight was unsuccessful.

The dogs died but a data recorder survived. Korolev was devastated by the loss of these dogs. Shortly afterwards, Smelaya ("Bold") and Malyshka ("Little One") were launched. Smelaya ran off the day before the launch. The crew was worried that wolves that lived nearby would eat her. She returned a day later and the test flight resumed successfully. The fourth test launch was a failure, with two dog fatalities. However, in the same month, the fifth test launch of two dogs was successful. On September 15, 1951, the sixth of the two-dog launches occurred. One of the two dogs, Bobik, escaped and a replacement was found near the local canteen. She was a mutt, given the name ZIB, the Russian acronym for "Substitute for Missing Dog Bobik." The two dogs reached 100 kilometers and returned successfully. Other dogs associated with this series of flights included Albina ("Whitey"), Dymka ("Smoky"), Modnista ("Fashionable"), and Kozyavka ("Gnat").

On November 3rd, 1957, Sputnik 2 blasted into Earth orbit with a dog named Laika aboard. Laika, which is Russian for "Husky" or "Barker," had the real name of Kudryavka ("Little Curly"). In the U.S. she was eventually dubbed "Muttnik." Laika was a small, stray mongrel picked up from the street. She was hastily trained and put aboard in a metal carrier under the second Sputnik sphere. There was no time to work out any reentry strategy and Laika expired after a few hours. Sputnik 2 finally burned up in the outer atmosphere in April 1958. Back in the U.S., on April 23, 1958 a mouse was launched in a Thor-Able "Reentry 1" test as the first launch in the Mouse in Able (MIA) project. It was lost when the rocket was destroyed after launch from Cape Canaveral. The second launch in the series was MIA-2, or Laska, in a Thor-Able "Reentry 2" test on July 9, 1958.

Laska endured 60G acceleration and 45 minutes of weightlessness before perishing. Wilkie, the third mouse in the MIA series, was lost at sea after the flight from Cape Canaveral on July 23, 1958. Fourteen mice were lost when the Jupiter rocket they were aboard was destroyed after launch from Cape Canaveral on September 16, 1959. Gordo, a squirrel monkey, was catapulted 600 miles high in a Jupiter rocket, also on December 13, 1958, one year after the Soviets launched Laika. Gordo's capsule was never found in the Atlantic Ocean. He died on splashdown when a flotation mechanism failed, but Navy doctors said signals on his respiration and heartbeat proved humans could withstand a similar trip. Able, an American-born rhesus monkey, and Baker, a South American squirrel monkey, followed on May 28, 1959, aboard an Army Jupiter missile. Launched in the nose cone, the two animals were carried to a 300-mile altitude, and both were recovered unharmed.

However, Able died June 1 on the operating table from effects of anesthesia, as doctors were about to remove an electrode from under her skin. Baker died of kidney failure in 1984 at age 27. Four black mice were launched on June 3, 1959, on Discoverer 3, part of the Corona program of U.S. spy satellites, which was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on a Thor Agena A rocket. This was the only Discoverer flight with an animal payload. The mice died when the Agena upper stage fired downward, driving the vehicle into the Pacific Ocean. The first try at launch was scrubbed after the telemetry indicated no sign of activity in the capsule and the first crew of four black mice was found dead. The mouse cages had been sprayed with krylon to cover rough edges, and the mice had found the krylon tastier than their formula and overdosed on it. The second try at launch with a backup mouse crew was halted when the humidity sensor in the capsule indicated 100-percent humidity.

The capsule was opened up and it was discovered that the sensor was located underneath one of the mouse cages; it was unable to distinguish the difference between water and mouse urine. After the sensor was dried out, the launch proceeded. Sam, a rhesus monkey, was one of the most well known monkeys of the space program. His name was an acronym for the U.S. Air Force S chool of A viation M edicine at Brooks Air Force Base, Texas. He was launched on December 4, 1959, housed in a cylindrical capsule within the Mercury spacecraft atop a Little Joe rocket in order to test the launch escape system (LES). Approximately one minute into the flight, traveling at a speed of 3685 mph, the Mercury capsule aborted from the Little Joe launch vehicle. After attaining an altitude of 51 miles, the spacecraft landed safely in the Atlantic Ocean. Sam was recovered, several hours later, with no ill effects from his journey. He was later returned to the colony in which he trained, where he died in November 1982 and his remains were cremated.

Miss Sam, another rhesus monkey and Sam's mate, was launched on January 21, 1960, for another test of the LES. The Mercury capsule attained a velocity of 1800 mph and an altitude of 9 miles. After landing in the Atlantic Ocean 10.8 miles downrange from the launch site, Miss Sam was also retrieved in overall good condition. She was also returned to her training colony until her death on an unknown date. In the Soviet Union, meanwhile, testing was also taking place on more dogs. On July 28, 1960, Bars ("Panther" or "Lynx") and Lisichka ("Little Fox") were launched on a Korabl Sputnik, a prototype of the Vostok manned spacecraft. The booster exploded on launch, killing the two dogs. On August 19, 1960, Belka ("Squirrel") and Strelka ("Little Arrow") were launched on Sputnik 5 or Korabl Sputnik 2, along with a gray rabbit, 40 mice, 2 rats, and 15 flasks of fruit flies and plants.

Strelka later gave birth to a litter of six puppies one of which was given to JFK as a gift for his children. Pchelka ("Little Bee") and Muska ("Little Fly") were launched onboard Sputnik 6 or Korabl Sputnik 3 on December 1, 1960 along with mice, insects, and plants. The capsule and animals burned up on re-entry. On December 22, 1960, soviet scientists attempted to launch Damka ("Little Lady") and Krasavka ("Beauty") on a Korabl Sputnik. However, the upper rocket stage failed and the launch was aborted. The dogs were safely recovered after their unplanned suborbital flight. On March 9, 1961, another Russian dog, Chernushka ("Blackie") was launched on Sputnik 9 or Korabl Sputnik 4. Chernushka was accompanied into space with a dummy cosmonaut, some mice, and a guinea pig.

Zvezdochka ("Little Star") was launched onboard Sputnik 10 or Korabl Sputnik 5 on March 25, 1961.The dog went up with simulated cosmonaut "Ivan Ivanovich" and successfully tested the spacecraft's structure and systems. On January 31, 1961, Ham, whose name was an acronym for H olloman A ero M ed, became the first chimpanzee in space, aboard the Mercury Redstone rocket on a sub-orbital flight very similar to Alan Shepard's. Ham was brought from the French Camaroons, West Africa, where he was born July 1957, to Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico in 1959. The original flight plan called for an altitude of 115 miles and speeds ranging up to 4400 mph. However, due to technical problems, the spacecraft carrying Ham reached an altitude of 157 miles and a speed of 5857 mph and landed 422 miles downrange rather than the anticipated 290 miles. Ham performed well during his flight and splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean 60 miles from the recovery ship.

He experienced a total of 6.6 minutes of weightlessness during a 16.5-minute flight. A post-flight medical examination found Ham to be slightly fatigued and dehydrated, but in good shape otherwise. Ham's mission paved the way for the successful launch of America's first human astronaut, Alan B. Shepard, Jr., on May 5, 1961. Upon the completion of a thorough medical examination, Ham was placed on display at the Washington Zoo in 1963 where he lived alone until September 25, 1980. He then was moved to the North Carolina Zoological Park in Asheboro. Upon his death on January 17, 1983, Ham's skeleton would be retained for ongoing examination by the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. His other remains were respectfully laid to rest in front of the International Space Hall of Fame in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Goliath, a one-and-a-half-pound squirrel monkey, was launched in an Air Force Atlas E rocket on November 10, 1961.

The SPURT (Small Primate Unrestrained Test) monkey was killed when the rocket was destroyed 35 seconds after launch from Cape Canaveral. Enos became the first chimp to orbit the earth on November 29, 1961, aboard a Mercury Atlas rocket. Although the mission plan originally called for three orbits, due to a malfunctioning thruster and other technical difficulties, flight controllers were forced to terminate Enos' flight after two orbits. Enos landed in the recovery area and was picked up 75 minutes after splashdown. He was found to be in good overall condition and both he and the Mercury spacecraft performed well. His mission concluded the testing for a human orbital flight, achieved by John Glenn on February 20, 1962. Enos died at Holloman Air Force Base of a non-space related case of dysentery 11 months after his flight. On October 18, 1963, French scientists launched the first cat into space on a Veronique AGI sounding rocket No. 47.

The cat, named Fï¿½licette, was successfully retrieved after a parachute descent, but a second feline flight on October 24 ran into difficulties that prevented recovery. Back in the Soviet Union, the dogs Veterok ("Breeze") and Ugoyok ("Little Piece Of Coal") were launched aboard Kosmos 110 by the Soviet Union on February 22, 1966. The flight was an evaluation of prolonged effects during space travel of radiation from the Van Allen Belts on animals. Twenty-one days in space still stand as a canine record and was only surpassed by humans in June 1974 with the flight of Skylab 2. The year 1968 saw the U.S.S.R. turn once again to the animal kingdom for the first passengers of their new, manned moon ship. The first successful Zond ("probe") launch was on September 15, 1968, when Zond 5 was launched. A biological payload of turtles, wine flies, mealworms, plants, seeds, bacteria, and other living matter was included in the flight. On September 18, 1968, the spacecraft flew around the Moon.

On September 21, 1968, the reentry capsule entered the earth's atmosphere, braked aerodynamically, and deployed parachutes at 7 km. The capsule splashed down in the Indian Ocean and was successfully recovered, but a failure of the reentry guidance system subjected the biological specimens to a ballistic 20G reentry. Zond 6 was launched on a lunar flyby mission on November 10, 1968. The spacecraft carried a biological payload similar to Zond 5. Zond 6 flew around the Moon on November 14, 1968. Unfortunately, the spacecraft lost a gasket on the return flight resulting in the loss of cabin atmosphere and destruction of the biological specimens. From 1966 to 1969, the U.S. launched three missions in the Biosatellite series. A total of six flights were planned. The first mission in the Biosatellite series, Biosatellite I, was launched on December 14, 1966, from Cape Kennedy by a Delta rocket.

The scientific payload, consisting of 13 select biology and radiation experiments, was exposed to microgravity during 45 hours of Earth-orbital flight. Experimental biology packages on the spacecraft contained a variety of specimens, including insects, frog eggs, microorganisms, and plants. Reentry into the Earth's atmosphere was not achieved because the retrorocket failed to ignite and the biosatellite was never recovered. Although not all the mission objectives were accomplished, the Biosatellite I experience provided technical confidence in the program because of excellent performance in most other areas. Improvements were made in hardware, prelaunch tests, and procedures before Biosatellite II was launched on September 7, 1967 from Cape Kennedy. The planned three-day mission was recalled early because of the threat of a tropical storm in the recovery area, and because of a communication problem between the spacecraft and the tracking systems. It carried a biological payload similar to Biosatellite I. The primary objective of the Biosatellite II mission was to determine if organisms were more, or less, sensitive to ionizing radiation in microgravity than on Earth.

To study this question, an artificial source of radiation (Strontium 85) was supplied to a group of experiments mounted in the forward part of the spacecraft. The last spacecraft in the series, Biosatellite III, was launched on June 28, 1969. On board was a single, male, pig-tailed monkey (Macaca nemestrina) named Bonnie, weighing 6 kg, for a planned 30-day mission. The mission objective was to investigate the effect of space flight on brain states, behavioral performance, cardiovascular status, fluid and electrolyte balance, and metabolic state. However, after just under nine days in orbit, the mission was terminated because of the subject's deteriorating health. Bonnie died eight hours after he was recovered due to a heart attack brought about by dehydration. After the manned lunar landing of Apollo 11, the role of animals was limited to the status of "biological payload." The range of species broadened to include rabbits, turtles, insects, spiders, fish, jellyfish, amoebae, and algae.

Although they were still used in tests dealing with long-range health effects in space, tissue development, and mating in a zero-g environment, etc., animals no longer made the front pages. One exception to this was one of the last Apollo flights, Skylab 3, which launched on July 28, 1973. On board were Anita and Arabella, two common Cross spiders. Tests were set up to record the spiders' successful attempts to spin webs in space. From 1973 to 1996, Russia, or its predecessor, the Soviet Union, launched a series of life sciences satellites called Bion. Research partners have included Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, China, the Commonwealth of Independent States, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, the European Space Agency, France, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Ukraine, and the United States. The Bion spacecraft is a modified Vostok type and is launched on a Soyuz rocket from the Plesetsk Kosmodrome in northern Russia. Bion missions are typically put under the Kosmos umbrella name, used for a variety of different satellites including spy satellites.

The first Bion launch was Kosmos 605 launched on October 31, 1973. The satellite carried tortoises, rats, insects, and fungi on a 22-day mission. Other missions have also carried plants, mold, quail eggs, fish, newts, frogs, cells, and seeds. Starting with Bion 6 (Kosmos 1514), these missions have carried pairs of monkeys. Bion 6/Kosmos 1514 was launched December 14, 1983, and carried the monkeys Abrek and Bion on a five-day flight. Bion 7/Kosmos 1667 was launched July 10, 1985 and carried the monkeys Verny ("Faithful") and Gordy ("Proud") on a seven-day flight. Bion 8/Kosmos 1887 was launched September 29, 1987, and carried the monkeys Yerosha ("Drowsy") and Dryoma ("Shaggy") on a 13-day flight. Yerosha partially freed himself from his restraints and explored his orbital cage during the mission.

On reentry, Bion 8 missed its touchdown point by 1850 miles, resulting in the death of several fish on board due to the frigid weather. Bion 9/Kosmos 2044 was launched September 15, 1989, and carried the monkeys Zhakonya and Zabiyaka ("Troublemaker") on a 14-day flight. Temperature problems onboard resulted in the loss of ant and earthworm experiments. Bion 10/Kosmos 2229 was launched December 29, 1992, and carried the monkeys Krosh ("Tiny") and Ivasha on a 12-day flight. Bion 10 was recovered two days early due to thermal control problems that resulted in unacceptably high onboard temperatures. Seven of fifteen tadpoles onboard died as a result of the high temperatures. Both monkeys were treated for dehydration and recovered. One monkey also suffered weight loss when he went without food for three days. Bion 11 was launched December 24, 1996, and carried the monkeys Lapik and Multik ("Cartoon") on a 14-day flight.

Tragically, Multik died the day after the capsule recovery during his post-landing medical operation and checkup. Multik's death raised new questions regarding the ethics of using animals for research. NASA has dropped out of participation in a planned Bion 12 mission. From 1983 to the present day, the Space Shuttle has flown over two dozen Spacelab experimental packages in its payload bay. Life-science Spacelab missions have included experiments involving the human astronauts as well as the animals and insects carried on these missions. STS-51-B (Spacelab-3) launched April 29, 1985. STS-61-A (Spacelab-D1) launched October 30, 1985. STS-40 (Spacelab Life Sciences 1 SLS-1) launched June 5, 1991. STS-42 (International Microgravity Laboratory-1 IML-1) launched January 22, 1992.

STS-47 (Spacelab-J), a joint venture between NASA and the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) launched September 12, 1992. STS-65 (IML-2) launched July 8, 1994. A biological payload record was set on April 17, 1998, when over two thousand creatures joined the seven-member crew of the shuttle Columbia (STS-90) for a sixteen-day mission of intensive neurological testing (NEUROLAB). Over the past 50 years, American and Soviet scientists have utilized the animal world for testing. Despite losses, these animals have taught the scientists a tremendous amount more than could have been learned without them. Without animal testing in the early days of the human space program, the Soviet and American programs could have suffered great losses of human life. These animals performed a service to their respective countries that no human could or would have performed. They gave their lives and/or their service in the name of technological advancement, paving the way for humanity's many forays into space. For more information on animal visitors to outer space, you may be interested in the following sites: Ham the Chimp... 1st into space...

- RareNewspapers.com Ham the Chimp... 1st into space... LEOMINSTER DAILY ENTERPRISE, Massachusetts, January 31, 1961 * Ham the Chimp * 1st into space * Mercury-Redstone 2 space flight This 8 page newspaper has a one column headline on the front page: "Space Ride For Chimp Is Delayed" Tells of the very 1st hominid to be launched into outer space. Other news of the day throughout. Minor spine wear, otherwise in good condition. wikipedia notes: Ham was born July 1956 in Cameroon, captured by animal trappers and sent to Rare Bird Farm in Miami, Florida. He was purchased by the United States Air Force and brought to Holloman Air Force Base in 1959.[1] There were originally 40 chimpanzee flight candidates at Holloman. After evaluation the number of candidates was reduced to 18, then to 6 including Ham. Officially, Ham was known as #65 before his flight, and only renamed "Ham" upon his successful return to earth.

This was reportedly because officials did not want the bad press that would come from the death of a "named" chimpanzee if the mission were a failure. Among his handlers, #65 had been known as Chop Chop Chang. Beginning in July 1959, the two-year-old chimpanzee was trained at the Holloman Air Force Base Aero Medical Field Laboratory to do simple, timed tasks in response to electric lights and sounds.[5] In his pre-flight training, Ham was taught to push a lever within five seconds of seeing a flashing blue light; failure to do so would result in an application of positive punishment in the form of a mild electric shock to the soles of his feet, while a correct response earned him a banana pellet.[6]:243 After all of the training, it was time to find out whether he could function under the stress and pressure that comes with space travel. What differentiates Ham's mission from all the other primate flights to this point is that he was not merely a passenger, and the results from his test flight led directly to the mission Alan Shepard would make on May 5, 1961 aboard the Freedom 7.

On January 31, 1961, Ham was secured in a Project Mercury capsule labeled MR-2 and launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, into outer space.[6]:314-315 Ham had his vital signs and tasks monitored using computers back on Earth.[7] The capsule suffered a partial loss of pressure during the flight, but Ham's space suit prevented him from suffering any harm.[6]:315 Ham's lever-pushing performance in space was only a fraction of a second slower than on Earth, demonstrating that tasks could be performed in space.[6]:316 Ham's capsule splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean and was recovered by a rescue ship later that day.[6]:316 He only suffered a bruised nose. His flight was 16 minutes and 39 seconds long. Ten months later, another chimp, named Enos, successfully orbited the earth. This was several months after Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's orbital flight and Shepard and Grissom's suborbital flights, but before US astronaut John Glenn's orbital flight aboard Mercury's Friendship 7.

Ham the Chimp biography | birthday, trivia | Astronaut | Who2 Ham the Chimp Biography Astronaut Ham the Chimp was one of the chimpanzees specially trained by NASA rocket scientists to fly in tests of American space capsules. On January 31, 1961, Ham blasted off from Cape Canaveral and traveled 157 miles in a Mercury capsule before splashing down in the Atlantic ocean. The trip took 16.5 minutes in all. Three months later the first American human, Alan Shepard , followed Ham into space. Extra credit Ham the Chimp was not the first animal in space. That honor goes to Laika the dog, who was sent into orbit by the Soviet Union in 1957. Ham, the first chimp in space (1961) - Click Americana Ham, the first chimp in space (1961) Pinterest Shepard. Glenn. Armstrong. All of them rode on the back of a little 37-pound chimp whose name sounded more like lunch meat than the first primate in space.

In the penultimate test of Mercury-Redstone, NASA launched Ham the chimp on a sub-orbital flight on January 31, 1961. If all went well, Alan Shepard would follow in his footsteps just a short while later in the race to put a human into space and return him safely to earth. Unfortunately for NASA — and Ham — things didn’t go quite perfectly, though Ham lived to tell the tale. An error in flight angle and added acceleration from the abort launch escape system resulted in Ham reaching over 5800 mph instead of the intended 4400 mph. Accordingly, he was catapulted an additional 130 miles downrange from his intended splashdown point, and he experienced a mind-bending 14.7 g of deacceleration upon reentry, 3 g more than planned. Despite all this, Ham came through the flight in good shape and would go on to live to the ripe old age of 26, spending his time at the National Zoo in Washington DC and another zoo in North Carolina before passing away on January 19, 1983.

America’s first space hero is buried at the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo. – AJW Space chimp enjoys the luxury of admiral at sea Think he survived rocket ride in excellent shape Aboard USS Donner at sea — Ham, the world famous space chimpanzee, enjoyed all the luxuries of an admiral at sea Tuesday night. The 37 1/4-pound male chimp, who Tuesday blazed a trail for America’s first human voyage in space, spent the night in the fairly plush commodore’s quarters of this veteran landing ship dock as it steamed over a moonlit South Atlantic toward the Grand Bahamas. Those quarters — consisting of a four-room suite — are usually reserved for visiting admirals, commodores and other very important persons. Not even the Donner’s regular skipper, Cmdr Ralph A Brackett, uses them as a regular thing. (Article continues below) It is true that Ham, the blackhaired chimp with white chinwhiskers and a brown face, slept in a cage. It is true that Ham was placed on the bathroom floor and was lashed to (1) the toilet and (2) the safety rail.

The latter is a device designed to prevent one from slipping after a shower aboard a rolling, pitching ship. But these were merely safety precautions aimed at protecting a precious government research property. After all, studies of Ham and of data transmitted to the earth from his space capsule may go a long way toward evaluating prospects in store for the first man to duplicate this chimp’s ride 155 miles high above this planet. Major Richard Benson, an Air Force veterinary doctor, who was Ham’s roommate Tuesday night — with Benson sleeping in an adjoining stateroom — said all present evidence indicates that Ham survived the rigors of his 5,000 mph ride in excellent shape. Ham did show a little fatigue, a little wobbling and trembling of his legs when standing, and a slight abrasion on the bridge of his nose. His capsule landed in choppy waters of the Atlantic far from where recovery ships had expected it to land. The capsule, bobbing on the sea for more than three hours before being retrieved by a daring helicopter team, flopped over on its side at some time during that wait, raising the possibility that the little space pioneer may have been head down for quite a while.

The Project Mercury Capsule, for reasons not yet determined, sprang leaks at some time during the flight or on impact with the result that the floor of the space craft had a foot and a half of water in it when sailors on the Donner opened it on a rolling flight deck. The water had lapped against the base of Ham’s special chamber inside the capsule but did not penetrate it. If it had, Ham may well have been a goner. Shortly after Ham, wearing diapers and rubber pants, was released from his capsule he was given a prize. It was a red apple and, as he ate it, he was as chipper as any run-of-the-zoo chimp on a Sunday afternoon mugging for zoo visitors. The young male chimp was freed from his capsule at 3:17 pm (CST) Tuesday. He had left Cape Canaveral rather abruptly at 10:55 am (CST) aboard a Redstone rocket. The capsule was literally hooked from the sea’s surface by a Marine helicopter flier who had flown an emergency rescue mission of nearly 90 miles to return the capsule to the Donner.

The Marine lieutenant reached from the helicopter’s cabin with a 16-foot shepherd’s crook and attached a towline from the aircraft to a loop on the capsule while the ‘copter hovered overhead. Dangling from the helicopter, the capsule was sped to the flight deck and gently lowered at 2:38 pm (CST). Sailors quickly removed the steel hatch exposing the enclosed chamber in which the chimp rode. Immediately watchers heard the chimp’s voice. It sounded like a cross between a kitten’s meow and a baby’s cry. “He’s alive,” said Benson. “He’s talking to us.” Benson pushed an oxygen hose through a small port in the chamber while sailors worked to open a small porthole large enough for the doctor to insert his hand. Meanwhile, the chimp cried steadily. “That could mean some anxiety,” Benson said. “He’s just vocalizing.” A sailor who got a glimpse of the chimp was asked, “How does he look?” “Fine,” replied the sailor. “He’s smiling at me.” About 35 minutes after being placed on the deck, the plexiglass covered couch in which the chimp had been sealed was removed and Ham came into view.

The animal turned his head from side to side, watching onlookers curiously and licking his pink chops. He reached a couple of fingers of his right hand through the port to grasp the hand of Benson. Then he rubbed his face and eyes and yawned a bit. When the lid was completely removed he shook hands with Benson, burped and folded his arms across his chest while the veterinarian applied a stethoscope to his chest. As he did so, onlookers noted a sign at the end of the couch to which the chimp had been laced: “Have Gun, Will Travel.” The doctor reached down to test the animal’s diapers. “They are damp,” said Benson. Benson then announced: “On the basis of this preliminary examination I would say he looks very good. It is very encouraging.” The chimp was taken to the ship’s battle dressing station and there placed atop a white table where Benson checked on heartbeat, temperature, respiration and lung conditions and for evidence of any broken bones. Everything was okay and the little ape’s reflexes also were normal. Shortly afterward Benson produced an apple. Ham became quite excited and began jumping with joy. Benson cut the apple and fed it to the animal in slices.

While he ate, Ham stood with his arm around the major. The largest animal ever sent aloft, Ham’s trip 155 miles high and 420 miles southeast into the Atlantic into the rescuing hands of the US Navy carried several main significances. 1. It indicates manned space flight is feasible. An American astronaut is scheduled this spring to duplicate Ham’s daring flight. 2. The Soviets appear likely to win the race to be first to orbit a man around the earth. 3. A very slight misfiring in the rocket system hurling out Ham’s capsule may well require further tests with or without a chimp aboard, before a man goes up. But this also produced valuable dividends. Ham’s test was a prelude to sending one of seven human volunteers on a similar flight. But the Soviet Union bids to win on man in space for several reasons. The Soviets have long had far more powerful rockets. Sputnik II, launched in November, 1957, carried up the dog Laika. Since then, the Soviets have recovered two dogs, each weighing about 10 pounds, aboard a space craft sent into orbit last August. Soviet space capsules are big enough perhaps to carry even two men at a time.

Soviet ships now patrolling the Pacific indicate the Soviet Union is on the verge of some new launching. (Article continues below) Vintage fashion coloring books for adults! Ham arrived home at Cape Canaveral, Florida, Wednesday, some 25 hours after the jolting rocket trip. He is due for thorough check-ups to learn if there are any danger signals against man going into space. The pilot reported Ham is “happy, he looks very happy.” See books created by our team in the Click Americana shop ! Chimponaut Ham - YouTube Chimponaut Ham Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. The interactive transcript could not be loaded. Loading... Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Aug 10, 2012 Newsreel / Documentary - "Trailblazer in Space" (1961) On January 31, 1961, Ham became the first chimpanzee launched into space, aboard a Mercury Redstone rocket on a sub-orbital flight.

Ham (July 1956 -- January 19, 1983), also known as "Ham the Chimp" and "Ham the Astrochimp", was the first chimpanzee launched into outer space in the American space program. Ham's name is an acronym for the lab that prepared him for his historic mission — the Holloman Aerospace Medical Center, located at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. EARLY LIFE Ham was born July 1956 in Cameroon, captured by animal trappers and sent to Rare Bird Farm in Miami, Florida. He was purchased by the United States Air Force and brought to Holloman Air Force Base in 1959. There were originally 40 chimpanzee flight candidates at Holloman. After evaluation the number of candidates was reduced to 18, then to 6, including Ham. Officially, Ham was known as No. 65 before his flight, and only renamed "Ham" upon his successful return to earth. This was reportedly because officials did not want the bad press that would come from the death of a "named" chimpanzee if the mission were a failure. Among his handlers, No.65 had been known as "Chop Chop Chang".

TRAINING AND MISSION Beginning in July 1959, the three-year-old chimpanzee was trained under the direction of neuroscientist Joseph V. Brady at Holloman Air Force Base Aero Medical Field Laboratory to do simple, timed tasks in response to electric lights and sounds. In his pre-flight training, Ham was taught to push a lever within five seconds of seeing a flashing blue light; failure to do so resulted in an application of positive punishment in the form of a mild electric shock to the soles of his feet, while a correct response earned him a banana pellet. On the morning of January 31, 1961, the four-and-a-half-year-old chimpanzee named "Ham" ate a breakfast of baby cereal, condensed milk, vitamins, and half an egg. Then the playful 37-and-a-half-pound primate was secured in a Project Mercury mission labeled MR-2 and launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a suborbital flight. Ham had his vital signs and tasks monitored using computers on Earth. The capsule suffered a partial loss of pressure during the flight, but Ham's space suit prevented him from suffering any harm.

Ham's lever-pushing performance in space was only a fraction of a second slower than on Earth, demonstrating that tasks could be performed in space. The original flight plan called for an altitude of 115 miles and speeds ranging up to 4400 mph. However, due to technical problems, the spacecraft carrying Ham reached an altitude of 157 miles and a speed of 5857 mph and landed 422 miles downrange rather than the anticipated 290 miles. Ham's capsule splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean 60 miles from the nearest recovery ship. He only suffered a bruised nose. He experienced a total of 6.6 minutes of weightlessness during his 16 minutes and 39 seconds long flight. A post-flight medical examination found Ham to be slightly fatigued and dehydrated, but in good shape otherwise. What differentiates Ham's mission from all the other primate flights to this point is that he was not merely a passenger, and the results from his test flight led directly to the successful launch of America's first human astronaut, Alan B. Shepard, Jr., on May 5, 1961 aboard Freedom 7.

Ham's reward was an apple and half an orange. The first American human to orbit the Earth, John Glenn, was rewarded with a seat in the U.S. Senate. LATER LIFE After the flight, Ham lived for 17 years in the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., then at the North Carolina Zoo before his death at the age of 26 on January 19, 1983. Ham appeared repeatedly on television, as well as on film with Evel Knievel. After his death in 1983, Ham's body was turned over to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology for necropsy. It was decided that the AFIP would retain Ham's skeleton for further study, and his body was cleaned of soft tissue by lengthy placement in the Dermestid beetle colony at the Smithsonian. Whatever remained, minus the skeleton, was transported to the International Space Hall of Fame in Alamogordo, New Mexico, and buried. The grave is marked by a memorial plaque. Ham's skeleton now resides in the AFIP's National Museum of Health and Medicine where it is kept and cared for alongside the skeletal remains of Civil War soldiers.

Sources: Chimp 'Ham' recruited by US 50 years ago to help beat Russia in the space race | Daily Mail Online comments He may sound like a comic book character from the age of Dan Dare, but Ham the astro-chimp had a serious purpose. One of a squadron of 40 chimpanzees specially trained by the U.S. to make a monkey out of the Soviet Union’s attempt to win the space race, Ham made history 50 years ago as the first chimp to be launched into space. With the Russians inching ever closer to the Holy Grail of sending a human into orbit, the Americans decided to use a three-year-old chimp — in the style of a gas-detecting canary in a mine — to find out whether humans would be able to survive in space. The right stuff: Ham is bolted into his capsule on top of the rocket that will blast him over 150 miles into space The Soviet Union had previously sent dogs into space, but the U.S. chose chimps because of their similarities to humans.

Originally from Cameroon in Africa, and once the star attraction at a Florida zoo, Ham was purchased by the United States Air Force to boldly go where only fruit flies, rhesus monkeys and a dog called Laika had gone before. Laika was a Russian hound who became the first animal to orbit the earth in November 1957 aboard the Sputnik 2 satellite. She survived for seven days before her oxygen ran out. The difference with Ham — whose name was taken from the initials of the Holloman Aerospace Medical Center in New Mexico, where he was housed — was that he would not only go up into space, but also come down again safely. Laid back: Ham appeared just as relaxed while preparing for take-off (left) as he did having come back down to earth He and his fellow chimps were prepared for the flight for two-and-a-half years, and taught to complete simple tasks in response to lights and sounds. Pushing a lever within five seconds of seeing a flashing blue light earned him a banana pellet; failure gave him a mild electric shock to the soles of his feet.

Teams of white-coated scientists put the apes to the test on machines that measured the stresses they could cope with in terms of gravity, velocity and heat. They were even fed the diet of banana capsules that would sustain them in space. On January 31, 1961, Ham was launched on Mission MR-2 — but almost immediately there was a hitch. The flight path was a degree higher than it should have been, meaning the craft reached an altitude of 157 miles above the earth — higher than the planned target of 115, and oxygen levels began to drop. For six minutes of the flight, Ham was weightless as the capsule sped across the sky at around 5,000mph. It splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean 16 minutes and 39 seconds later, and when rescuers reached it, Ham gratefully accepted an apple and half an orange. Testing time: Ham, wearing his military dog tags, undergoes medical tests He was unharmed by his adventure, and went to live at the National Zoo in Washington for 17 years. He died at North Carolina Zoo at the age of 25. The space race didn’t end with his flight, though.

Although the Americans could claim they had put a primate into space, the Russians argued that the flight was only sub-orbital — in other words, it hadn’t gone right round the world. On April 12, 1961, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin entered the history books when he became the first man in space aboard Vostok 1. The Americans followed a month later on May 5 when Alan B. Shepard became their first astronaut. By then, Ham already had his feet up. Weight: 1,450 kg (3,200 pounds) External Dimensions: 1.89 meters (6.2 feet) diameter Internal Dimensions: 3.72 meters (40 square feet) - "about the size of a coffin" Launch vehicle: Redstone rocket Capsule control: Mercury missions did not require sophisticated control and the basic maneuvers for sub-orbital and orbital flights could be controlled automatically. Many of the instruments inside the capsule were from airplane cockpits. Materials: Hull made from titanium 0.01 inches thick, blanketed by fiberglass insulation and covered with blackened heat radiating shingles.

On the conical sides, shingles are made of a nickel-steel alloy. The cylindrical nose needed protection for higher temperatures, so shingles were made of beryllium. Beryllium heat shield (lost on recovery) to absorb heat on reentry. Plasticized fabric landing bag. Manufacturer: McDonnell Aircraft Corporation of St. Louis in conjunction with the Space Task Group, formed by NASA and operating out of Langley, Virginia. The flight of this Mercury-Redstone 2 tested the rocket, the capsule and the ability to work in space and return safely, in preparation for the first American astronaut's journey into space. Mercury-Redstone 2 carried a chimpanzee named Ham and helped to confirm that humans could safely make the trip. History As part of the space race against the Soviet Union, the Project Mercury program (1958-1963) was designed to put an American astronaut into orbit around the Earth and return him safely. The program also tested how well humans could function in the unknown environment of space.

But before humans could be sent out, NASA needed to make sure that they could be kept safe from micrometeoroids, radiation, noise, vibration, acceleration forces, microgravity and the vacuum of space. In addition, medical experts were unsure if humans could handle being isolated and confined in a space as small as the inside of the space capsule. NASA The Mercury-Redstone 2 flight tested the rocket and capsule, as well as the ability to work in space and return safely to Earth. Once the rocket and capsule design features selected for the Mercury missions were performing reliably, a chimpanzee named HAM was chosen from a colony of six "astrochimps" to test the environmental control systems inside the Mercury capsule. Researchers sent chimpanzees into space because chimps' organ and skeletal structures are similar to ours, and chimps can be trained. The MR-2 flight showed that HAM could concentrate and work in flight. Through launch, more than six minutes of weightlessness, and reentry, he moved levers in response to flashing lights, just as he had been taught in the laboratory. Ham's response times in space were as good as on Earth.

The success of HAM's flight paved the way for the first American astronaut, Alan Shepherd, to go into sub-orbital space on May 5th, 1961. Another chimp, Enos, tested the first orbiting Mercury capsule on November 29th, 1961. On February 20th, 1962, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth. Mercury MR-2 Landing and Recovery NASA The landing bag and heat shield were designed to extend down about four feet before landing and fill with air to help cushion the impact. Once landed, the bag and heat shield were supposed to act together like a sea anchor to keep the capsule upright. A mistake at launch meant that the capsule went 157 miles up—40 miles higher than planned—and came down with such force that the heat shield punctured the capsule and water started to come on board. Six naval destroyers and a landing ship dock, the U.S.S. Donner, with three helicopters on board were waiting to pick up the capsule when it landed in the Atlantic. Unfortunately, they were waiting in the wrong place.

Because the capsule went faster and higher than expected, it landed 60 miles away from the nearest ship. Just in case of such an event, four surveillance aircraft were ready to search for the capsule. NASA Half an hour after landing, a plane spotted the capsule. Helicopters from the U.S.S. Donner were sent to collect it, but it took 2 hours and 40 minutes until a helicopter managed to lift the capsule out of the water. During that time the heat shield and landing bag, already damaged on landing, were further ripped about by the waves. The heat shield tore free and sank before recovery, leaving only the badly damaged landing bag. Once back on the ship, Ham was finally taken out of the capsule. Physical examination showed him to be in good condition, despite the fact that his 16 minute flight into space had extended to a rescue mission lasting just under four hours. View a timeline of the recovery and rescue mission . On all other aspects the flight of MR-2 was a great success. The heat shield/landing bag mechanism was quickly redesigned to be able to withstand stronger impacts before Alan Shepherd's Mercury flight three months later.

The Science Center's MR-2 Capsule The MR-2 capsule on display at the Science Center is the actual capsule that went into space with HAM on board. Inside the space capsule, you can even see Ham's couch. After the MR-2 capsule returned from its trip to space, the Navy used it to practice helping a person out of the capsule and retrieving the capsule from the ocean. These practice missions helped the teams prepare for later Mercury missions, many of which were manned by human astronauts. If you look closely at the nose of the capsule we have on display, you'll see yellow paintings that look like hieroglyphs (see photos at left). The paintings were done by the rescue team members to keep a record of what happened on each practice mission. The MR-2 capsule is on loan from the National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution. HAM Stats Weight: 16.78 kg (37 pounds) Age at launch: 4 years old Birthplace: French Cameroon (now Cameroon), Africa Homes after flight: National Zoo in Washington D.C.; chimpanzee colony in North Carolina Died: 1983, of natural causes Could Ham see out of the capsule? No, but he experienced microgravity.

A window was added to later capsule designs so the astronauts could look out. NASA HAM checks out his equipment pre-flight. Mercury Links Mercury Program Overview This comprehensive site from NASA includes overviews on the Mercury project along with links to photos and details from manned and unmanned Mercury missions. You can also find links to technical illustrations, and even the complete text from a book about the Mercury project.

Question: What was the name of the chimp that was sent into space in Project Mercury mission MR-2 in January 1961?
Answer: Ham